Madoka Magica 1: I don’t usually do this but…

And no, I’m probably not going to do this for each episode. Probably. :v

Yeah, I was kind of like this after the first half.

Watching the first half of this episode, I felt like everything (the music, the character interactions, the situations, so on and so forth) save SHAFT’s character animations (!!!) was trying too hard to set up at least the normal life of Madoka. Being a fan of SHAFT X Shinbo, Yuki Kajiura and Aoki Ume, through that period I was thinking to myself “Calm down guys. You got this” as if it was a team that I don’t want to lose/fail. And I don’t, because I know what each can do when they’re at their best, and how often does a show combine things I like together? I’d watch this dream team’s result regardless of how it turns out, hopefully having more good vibes than not.

Totally unexpected mustaches. And great ones at that.

But after the initial Madoka/Homura conversation, the overall “feel” of the show seemed to calm down and go smoother. Even as things got WTF (gogo Gekidan Inu Curry) and awesome (gogo UNLIMITED GUN WORKS). More than likely because things got WTF and awesome.

And Tatsuya is so damn adorable.

Also kind of liked how besides Madoka, her family, Sayaka, Himura, Mimi and Kyube, no-one else’s name was mentioned. This despite a lot of relative screentime for characters like the teacher and that middle-class friend. Hope that sort of remains that way on purpose.

I think this is intentional, actually. There’s some altogether too sinister about the sickly sweet happiness that contrasts the pre-OP teaser and the later dark feel of the show. I got the sense that the saccharine scenes were meant to be piled on.